Coffee, Black
by jilytho
Summary: Lily Evans works in a small coffee shop with Severus Snape. Shes a uni student but sees the inside of a coffee machine more than she does the inside of a classroom recently. When James Potter starts to come in they start a tradition. Coffee shop AU


The stupid espresso machine was making that disgusting screeching noise again. It does it once a month, at least, Tim was the only one who could ever get it to stop but Tim was also a slimy asshole whose eyes were attached to Lily's boobs anytime they worked together. Suffice to say, she was not calling him. Ignoring the irritating sound with a deep huff, she went back to ring out the soccer mom who ordered the americano.

"If that noise doesn't stop soon I'm probably going to commit suicide," Mary muttered to her as she walked past her, "I'm gonna go grab us some more lids if you're good here." She nodded in agreeance. It was 7pm on a Sunday night and they were a tiny coffee shop on the corner of a tiny street and closing in 60 minutes. Basically, they were dead. She went back to wiping the already spotless counter.

Lily had started working at the coffee shop this past May when she was desperate to pay rent and Sev said he wanted to spend more time with her. All in all, the money was fairly good and, save for the occasional rude customer, and she genuinely did like seeing more of Sev. If they weren't working a shift together they practically never saw each other anymore, as he spent all his time nowadays with those Lucius and Mulciber blokes. She tried to befriend them as well but she couldn't see what Sev saw in them. They seemed to leer at her and stare more than Tim ever did, not to mention their disgusting language and blatant sexism and racism. It was a taboo subject between them now, best left untouched.

The bell above the door chimed and two customers walked in together. While making them their drinks she heard the tell tale bell chime again. After ringing them out, and watching them leave she saw the next and only person left in line, standing there staring down at his phone texting away, oblivious to the world. The guy seemed tall and lanky and was awkwardly hunched looking at his phone. THe most she could see was the top of his head, covered with brown hair defying practically every law of physics and gravity as a whole.

"Next," Lily called. No movement from Texting boy. "Next!" She repeated, agitation seeping into her tone. "Oi, texting bloke, would you like some coffee or not?" the boy seemed to jump 3 feet in the air, and almost hit his head on the lights dangling above him, as though he hadn't noticed her at all. He met eyes with her and his immediately seemed to go wider than Lily thought possible. He quickly hurried over to her, stuffing his phone into his pocket, and muttering apologies about not seeing.

"What can I get for you today?" She asked, ignoring his blathering, he started to stutter out an incomprehensible, "erm.. Just ah… ya know…" the boy's hand shot to his hair and seemed to be pulling so tight on it that Lily winced.

After a moment of silence, filled with his starring at her, eyes wide and hand running through hair. She repeated her question.

"Erm a uh, coffee?" He asked rather than requested, still yet, Lily attempted to maintain her air of professionalism. The bloke was attractive but clearly had some sort of mental deficiency, what with all of the starring and awkward hair ruffling. Yet, none of his wide eyed stare seemed to be malicious it was almost as if he just truly couldn't' believe that she was standing there in front of him.

"Black?" "sure yeah that's… good…" More i nane blabber… "What's your name?" She asked, marker poised over the side of the cup.

"My what?" He, for the first time since they started talking, didn't blather but rather seemed too shocked by her question to stutter over it.

"Your name? Ya know that thing they give to you at birth so that people know what to yell when you're being a git? You have one, don't you?" She sassily shot at him, tiring of the back and forth.

He seemed to regain his composure and straightened up, fixing his glasses and adopting an easy relaxed grin, "Trust me, gorgeous, you're gonna yell it for a whole different reason," he drawled. Lily made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat and any kindness she had for the idiot quickly fleeted. Realizing the line didn't seem to work on the redhead, he started sputtering again and saying, "I'm sorry that was dumb my shit friend always says that at these places when the baristas cute and you're bloody gorgeous and I'm absolute shite at flirting but I thought because I wasn't going to see you again unless I said something and he always makes those lines seem cool and alluring and _why are you laughing?"_ He questioned, "Here I am, baring my soul to you, embarrassing myself something awful in front of the fittest bird i've seen in my entire miserable existence and she just sits there and laughs at me? Do you honestly want me to die of embarrassment?" His rambling continued but Lily couldn't help the little giggles that kept erupting from her at his completely idiotic apologies.

"I'm laughing because that was the most utterly ridiculous line i've probably ever heard and the sheer idea or anyone ever falling for that, coming from you or your illustrious mate, is absolutely befuddling and is inciting a lot of fear for our generations mental capacity," she said, the corners of her mouth still shaped in a grin.

"I like to think that most girls overlook the line in favor of my undeniable good looks and play along just with hopes of looking at me a little longer."

"And you're okay with knowing that they are simply using you for your body?"

"Funny enough, I have yet to have found real problem with that situation." He pondered insightfully, miming stroking a beard while looking skyward to think.

"Hm fancy that," she giggled.

"I'm fancying something for sure," he said lowly, a red blush erupting from his neck and curling around his ears. His hand went sheepishly back to his hair, while they maintained careful eye contact, before abruptly, his hand shot out in between the two, causing Lily to jump slightly.

"I'm James, by the way. James Potter," He said, still holding his hand out urgently. Cautiously placing down the marker and fitting her hand into his with a small shake, "Lily Evans, nice to meet you… I think," she said while he continued to gently shake her hand up and down. He seemed delighted that they were touching and didn't remove his hand from her own, or even seemed to realize that it was an odd thing to hold and shake somebody's hand for bordering two minutes, she cleared her throat and he looked down at their hands and quickly stopped their movement.

"I'm just gonna take that back if ya dont mind, sort of need it, thank you," She rambled while retracting her hand from his grip. They met eyes again and although the awkward tension was palpable, neither of them seemed to tear their eyes away until a shrieking noise interrupted the two of them.

"What the bloody hell is that?" James questioned, one hand coming up to block his ear.

"Just the espresso machine don't worry about it, it probably won't explode," the noise snapped her out of her stupor and she immediately set about writing his name on the cup and grabbing his coffee.

" 'Probably won't explode', well isn't that the most comforting string of words I've ever heard…" James rambled on.

Lily barely heard what he was saying, as she contemplated the merits of writing her own number beneath his name, but decided it was much too weird and cliche. So, she wordlessly handed James his numberless black coffee and rang him out before sharing a final smile and turning away to stop herself from making an even bigger fool of herself.

"Right then, thanks.. er Lily… see you around," dropping his change in the tip jar, he slowly walked out of the little shop, looking over his shoulder at the redhead twice before walking into the door as a result of not paying attention. Hearing the clamor Lily turned quickly just in time to see James, rubbing his head, push the pull door for a solid 20 seconds, before realizing and sending a sheepish smile over his shoulder to her, and walking out.

* * *

The next time James came in, it was a Tuesday morning, 10am and Lily was working with Severus for the first time in a week. They had been chatting the entire morning, happily catching up and talking about anything other than the growing political tensions and how his friends, and possibly Severus, were loving the unrest and opportunity it presented to push their radical third party agenda.

James approached the empty counter, unseen by Lily or Severus, who were joking around over the espresso machine, and upon hearing a break in their conversation called out, "So what are the odds that espresso machine will explode today, you reckon?" Lily, who had spun abruptly after hearing his voice, broke out into a wide grin, and sauntered over to him, "Ah 1 to 3 probably, I'm feeling relatively certain itll hang in there until night fall at least," she bantered back. Severus, clearly confused and slightly angered by the interruption of their conversation and by the fact that this stranger with stupid hair managed to make Lily smile brighter than he had seen all morning, stood by the espresso machine, scowl fiercely in place and glowered at James behind Lily's back.

James had barely even noticed Severus' presence, he was so focused on the blindingly bright smile of Lily's, that when he heard a male throat clear, he almost knocked over the cup full of straws sitting on the counter. He fumbled to catch them and push them back to a safer place on the counter, before finding Severus behind the counter and nodding at him with a relaxed smile, " 'ello mate," Severus didn't seem so inclined to reply but instead merely narrowed his eyes at James.

"Right then," James said under his breath, "How're you today, lovely Lily?"

Severus was sure of what was about to happen, he thought with satisfaction. Lily would glare at the pathetic ponce attempting to flirt with her and properly tell him to shove off. She always hated smarmy nicknames and compliments like that, said they reminded her of her creepy Uncle Horace. One can imagine his surprise and horror, when rather than huffing and puffing at the bloke, Lily laughed. And not the fake little laugh she did to get tips out of customers, but a light, nervous, breathy laugh as if she was genuinely charmed by this moron.

They stood at the counter and bantered back and forth for at least 5 minutes but Severus heard none of it. His head was racing with thoughts and anger was swirling in his chest. He stormed down to the basement and angrily thought about that stupid git upstairs and whether or not he was overreacting.

Meanwhile, Lily hadn't noticed Severus' disappearance at all. She was much too involved with James and his ridiculous, yet somehow believable tale of how he stumbled upon the tiny coffee shop they were in on that Sunday night and all Lily could think about was Thank God there was that road closure and he desperately needed to get caffeine in order to make it the next 24.7 miles to get turtle food for his best mate because she was so glad that this awkward fellow had shown up in the little shop. Their little bubble burst when Sev returned from the basement and slammed the door to the basement shut. Lily jumped away from the counter, as though she had been caught doing something she shouldn't have. Embarrassed by his behavior and feeling uncomfortable, she called Sev over to the counter.

"Sev this is James Potter. James, this is my best mate Severus Snape." Pleased with his introduction, Severus rose his chin up and looked down at Potter. James, stuck his hand out towards Snape, who stared at it like it was diseased before lightly taking it and Lily's wide eyed urging. "Good to meet you, mate," James said good naturedly. Severus nodded lightly back at him before getting distracted by movement outside the window. He knew the protest was going to pass the shop at some point, he just hoped he would have forced Lily to the basement under the guise of fetching more cups before it happened.

Following his gaze, Lily saw the protesters and got a chance to read one of their grotesque signs held by Severus mate, Mulciber, before scoffing and looking at Snape, "Did you know that this was going to happen today?" She demanded as the parade moved past the coffee shop and continued down the street.

"Lily, not now," Sev urged at her. "Then when, Sev? God, if you weren't at work with me right now you'd be out there with them spewing that crap, wouldn't you?" She spit the words out at him.

"Leave it, Lily, I'm not joking." Severus turned around and stalked out from behind the counter to wipe down the tables. Lily flipped her hair and all she could think about was how much she wanted to smash Snape's ignorant nose in.

"Uh- Lily?" James started cautiously, "you alright?"

She had nearly forgotten he was there. She looked up at him now and felt her anger seep out, upon seeing his nervous, deer in headlights expression. "Yeah, I- I'm fine just really really…" "hate those ignorant, clean blood morons? Yeah, me too. They're wrong, they're idiots, and they're gonna get what's coming to them but you can't let them get to ya." He finished for her.

"That's exactly what I was thinking…" She got him his coffee and even after he paid, she stood there at the counter with him and chatted and bantered until his coffee was empty and the refill she had gotten him went cold. New customers came in and James stood to the side and watched Lily as she served them, blushing the whole time, and Severus stood in the back angry the whole time.


End file.
